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SOUTHFIELD, Mich. — A thaw in the weather began to bring buyers back to showrooms, which allowed
General Motors, Ford, Toyota, Nissan and Chrysler to top analysts’ estimates for March sales.

Among large automakers, only Honda failed to beat analysts’ predictions. Honda sales fell 2
percent last month, compared with a forecast of a 1.8 percent decline, the average of seven
analysts’ estimates.

Ford yesterday forecast an annual, industrywide sales pace of about 16.5 million vehicles,
including medium-duty and heavy trucks, which typically account for at least 200,000 sales a year.
Chrysler projected a pace of 16.2 million vehicles on that same basis. Analysts had projected a
15.8 million light-vehicle selling rate, up from 15.3 million a year earlier. GM sales rose 4.1 p
ercent, after analysts predicted a 0.8 percent rise.

The better-than-estimated results come as welcome relief to automakers that endured two months
of quiet dealerships as blizzards and frigid temperatures kept tire-kickers homebound.
Light-vehicle sales through February fell 1.4 percent, according to researcher Autodata Corp.

“Things are recovering to where we were last summer,” said Matthew Stover, an analyst at
Guggenheim Securities in Boston. “The weakness we saw in January and February had more to do with
weather than with the overall economy.”

Dealers began noticing more traffic on their lots in the second half of March, as the weather
finally broke and snow began melting in many heavily populated regions of the country, executives
said.

“It was encouraging to all of us — after a softer January, February — the spring market kind of
bloomed in March,” John Felice, Ford’s U.S. sales chief, said yesterday on a conference call with
analysts and reporters. There were “encouraging signs coming out of March,” that bode well for this
quarter, he said.

April could be a strong month for auto sales because there is good credit available, plenty of
inventory on dealer lots and growing cash incentives from automakers, said Mark Wakefield, a
partner at consultant AlixPartners in Southfield, Mich.

“This is the opposite of a perfect storm — it’s a perfect calm,” said Wakefield, whose firm
advised GM through its 2009 bankruptcy. “Most Aprils don’t have blizzards and sub-zero
temperatures. So with these positive conditions and meaningfully increased incentives, the sales
market looks good.”

Honda Accord sales fell 7 percent from March 2013 to 33,962, falling to third place for the
month in the midsize sedan market behind the Toyota Camry, which had 41,953 deliveries, and the
Nissan Altima, with 35,921. Ford said it sold a record 32,963 Fusion sedans, up 8.8 percent.

Ford’s total light-vehicle deliveries rose 3.3 percent to 243,417. F-Series pickups gained 5.1
percent to 70,940, while Escape SUV sales slipped 0.8 percent to 28,701, the automaker based in
Dearborn, Mich., said in a statement. The second-largest U.S. automaker topped the average of nine
analysts who projected a gain of 1.1 percent.

Toyota deliveries rose 4.9 percent to 215,348 cars and light trucks, the company said. Nissan
sales jumped 8.3 percent to 149,136 vehicles, a monthly record, according to a company statement.
That beat projections of a 1.3 percent gain for Toyota and unchanged sales for Nissan, the average
of seven analysts’ estimates.

“The good news about these sales is that it says the weakness that we saw in the first two
months was really more cosmetic than economic,” Stover said. “But we still are trying to answer the
question of whether or not things are actually getting better.”

Hyundai and affiliate Kia, South Korea’s two biggest automakers, sold a combined 121,782
vehicles last month, a 3.7 percent increase. The average of seven analysts’ estimates was for a
drop of 2.6 percent. Hyundai, based in Seoul, reported a 1.9 percent decline in sales to 67,005,
while Kia said its deliveries grew 12 percent to 54,777.

Industrywide sales were expected to rise 2.1 percent to 1.48 million light vehicles, the average
of 10 analyst projections showed.

GM may have been little affected by the recall of 2.6 million small cars tied to 13 deaths,
because those models are no longer in production. The Detroit-based company reported sales
increases of 14 to 46 percent for its three small Chevrolet cars, the Sonic, Spark and Cruze.

The automaker has announced almost 7 million recalls worldwide already this year, including the
2014 Chevrolet Silverado and GMC Sierra pickups equipped with six-speed transmissions.